Ridge women shift smoothly into town leadership

It would be easy to celebrate the fact that Lauren Gill is the first female Paradise town manager since its incorporation in 1979. It would be even easier to feel good about women holding six of the eight department head positions in the town.

The reality, however, is that practically nobody at the town thinks much of those facts.

It's true that retired Town Manager Chuck Rough commented that he was proud to work in a town that obviously has no problem hiring women. Paradise Police Department Chief Gabriela Tazzari-Dineen helped illustrate this when the town council appointed her as the department's first female chief.

"For me, it was kind of interesting that it got that kind of attention," Tazzari-Dineen said.

Like the rest of the department heads interviewed by The Post, she thinks the town's female leaders who simply are the most qualified people for the jobs just happen to be women — the same way some people who are most qualified to be department heads just happen to be men. She'd rather focus on her journey through emigrating from Argentina as an 11-year-old to becoming chief of police, a story she views as proof of the American Dream.

"I'm more proud of that than I am about being a female, because I was born female," Tazzari-Dineen said. "I had nothing to do with that."

Part of what makes the town staff's culture is that people tend to rise to the top from within, much like Gill's 28 years in Town Hall helped land her the interim town manager post.

Gill's chance to serve as interim town manager did give her pause, she said. Her concern? The fact that she'd be working with an all-male town council that she wanted to serve to the best of her ability.

"There was a moment when I thought, ‘do I need to have certain skills to communicate better with men?'" she said.

After considering her talents in communication, the thought failed to last more than a few days.

She'd rather not name herself the first female town manager, considering she's aware of the temporary nature of the ‘interim' part of her title. More so, Gill is glad to see that the supposed novelty of women in leadership positions is becoming increasingly rare.

"I'd like to be an example for other women and help other women, but again, I do not like it to be something in everyone's face, and I don't want special attention or compensation or privileges or anything because I'm a woman, or whatever I am," she said. "I want to just be in the game on my own merits."

The number of women working in traditionally male posts may be interesting, said Town Clerk Joanna Gutierrez, but her view is that the different genders don't mean shifted priorities or talents.

"Maybe a different style with the same mission, but just based on the fact that it's a different person, not a different gender," Gutierrez said.

Perhaps it's the lack of focus on hiring for anything other than talent and competence that led to the increased number of women leaders, said Public Works Director Paul Derr.

"Paradise has set some standards that some people are not aware of," he said, adding that those standards include the town's waste management systems and other creative town projects.

Consider Finance Director Gina Will, the first female to hold that position. She didn't even realize it until asked about it by The Post.

While she thought it was an amusing coincidence, she also noted that she's also only the second person to hold the title and that women served in her role before the title "Finance Director" came about.

"I don't think that they've gone out particularly to pick women," Will said. "It just happened that (current town leaders) are the most qualified, I guess."

Planning Director Craig Baker was the only town department head who could not be reached for comment by the time of print.

It would be difficult to find anyone at Town Hall who would say that they consider gender differences at all. If there is any consideration of it, it's mostly a hope that the people who notice are the ones who may feel limited, female or otherwise.

"I have two nieces, and I hope that they see what I do and the success that I've achieved — I hope it shows them what is open to them," Tazzari-Dineen said.